Ben Kennedy was on the winning side of an Auburn-Alabama-like finish on Sunday.

The Daytona Beach native rallied back in the last hour of voting on Sunday to win the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Most Popular Driver Award. Down about 300 votes, Kennedy tied then overtook Louisville’s Ben Rhodes in frantic fan voting.

“With about five minutes to go in voting, we tied him then passed him before voting closed,” Kennedy said in a telephone interview today. “It went viral. It was awesome.”

Ben Kennedy

The final tally: Kennedy 5,034 votes, Rhodes 4,896.

Kennedy credits several local radio stations and restaurants, plus supporters from around the country, for getting the 11th-hour push to the top of the ballot.

“We had people vote for us from across the nation,” Kennedy said. “We had people reach out to us from New York, Las Vegas to all over. It was an amazing amount of the support that was out there.”

Kennedy, who a great grandson of NASCAR founder William H.G. France, said he is still formulating his racing schedule for the 2014 and he will make an announcement in the next few weeks.

It’s no secret the 21-year-old driver wants to make the jump from K&N Pro to the Camping World Truck Series.

In the meantime, Kennedy plans to compete in the Snowflake (Limited Late Models) and Snowball Derby (Super Late Models) this weekend at Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola.

“We’ll practice up there Thursday and Friday,” he said. “The Snowflake is Saturday night and the Snowball is Sunday afternoon. We got both cars up there and we are as ready as we’ll ever be. I like that track. Maybe we can make something happen there.”